one flew over the cuckoo’s nest – Key West high-low comedy: candidate for public office qualifications; homeless man’s sunk tug boat, perhaps County Commissioner George Neugent should pay to raise it from the deep; cat burglar sitcom; right to privacy seminar; how to lose a vote technique; the disease of men (and women); dulcineas, and other perfectly weird circus acts in the Sloan for Mayor campaign …

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me threatening to drop trow at a candidate forum in 2009, in support of Key West having a nude beach … right to left, mayor candidates Mike Mongo, Mayor Morgan McPherson, Craig Cates (who won that race without a runoff, and the next race, and the next race, and now he’s running again this year)

From Sheldon Davidson of Hometown! PAC, which had requested photos of candidates and I sent them this photo.

Dear Sloan,

We did not post your picture but we have it and will get it up on our website asap.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

Sheldon Davidson

I jibed back:

Thanks, Sheldon, do you want anything else from candidates, such as rabies inoculation certificate, written permission from parents, polygraph exam report, proof of live birth?

(Hometown! puts on calls to candidates and candidate forums in Key West.)

Sheldon replied:

Dear Sloan,

No, the photo was sufficient.

Thank you again for your good humor.

A nap dream yesterday told me there was something on Facebook about Arnaud Girard,

81-foot tug sinks off Key West, cost to taxpayers to salvage to be enormous

BY SEAN KINNEY

skinney@keynoter.com

March 5, 2014

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West’s Aids to Navigation Team has installed a lighted buoy on the wreck of the tugboat ‘Tilly,’ which sunk in 35 feet of water about two miles off Key West.

COAST GUARD
What began in January as one man’s whim to buy a 150-gross-ton tugboat for $8,000 is poised to end with a combination of taxpayer-funded agencies footing the six-figure bill to haul the 81-foot Tilly out of water off Key West, where it sank and remains.
Stephen Freer, 66, said his goal was to start a “marine cooperative” and take the Tilly to Cuba — he had never owned or operated any sort of boat — to escape the “evil empire driven by greed and arrogance” in the United States.
Freer bought the boat off craigslist, then had it towed into the new Stock Island Village Marina, where he had reserved a slip for February, on Jan. 25.
Marina managers started a formal eviction on Jan. 28, the day of the marina’s grand opening. On Feb. 21, marina staff towed the Tilly out of the harbor, at which point the stories diverge.
“I understood we were going to the mooring field” off Fleming Key, Freer said, “but instead, he just dumped me in the channel” about two miles off Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.
“That was my first time on the water,” he said. Freer was soon picked up a boat salvor.
By Feb. 23, the Tilly was sitting on the ocean bottom in about 35 feet of water, with some of its superstructure exposed.
Marina spokesman Robin Smith-Martin said “we were trying to help him out. Our guys asked, ‘Do you want us to help you get the boat out of here’ and he said yes. They towed him out somewhere west of the ship’s channel and he set his anchor. They asked him if he wanted a ride back to shore and he said no.”
Smith-Martin said the eviction is based on marina policy.
“Our policy is that you have to come in under your own power. He told us it was a motor yacht. During our grand-opening party, he made some signs asking people for money. He was subletting out some space to homeless people and that’s in violation. It was kind of a nightmare.”
“The Tilly didn’t fit in with their rich, white color scheme,” Freer said of the marina, adding that he sees two options: The marina can recover and repair his boat or he’ll “take them to school with a media blitz.”
The recovery
U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West spokesman Peter Bermont said the base got a report Feb. 21 that the Tilly “was dragging anchor.” On Feb. 23, the Coast Guard “received a report from a mariner that they nearly [collided] with the Tilly because it was not displaying proper navigation lights.”
That prompted sector commander Capt. Al Young to issue what’s called a “captain of the port order” directing Freer to “ensure that your vessel is safely anchored outside the main ship channel and maintains proper navigation lights” according to federal law.
The Coast Guard’s Aids to Navigation Team has installed a red buoy with blinking lights on the wreck.
An assessment team with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary snorkeled the Tilly Monday, according to sanctuary Superintendent Sean Morton.
“We want it out of there,” Morton said. “It looks like it is dripping out a little bit of oil. Most fuel and oil was removed prior to it sinking but I think you’re always going to have a little bit of something.”
The next step is for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to officially declare the vessel derelict, a process that’s already under way, Morton said.
From there, the “FWC will work with us, the Coast Guard and Monroe County on a salvage plan.”
Monroe County Commissioner George Neugent

said this is an example of the county’s reactive rather than proactive monitoring of derelict boats, on which the county spends around $250,000 per year removing from local waters.
“I think that any time you can manage a situation and it’s not to interfere with anyone’s right to public boating, it’s just a matter of enforcing existing rules and regulations.”
“Now we’ve got a vessel on the bottom of the ocean that needs to be removed. I have a severe problem with spending public money on this,” he said.
He said he’d put a discussion item on the County Commission agenda for its March 19 meeting at the Marathon Government Center.
Morton and Neugent agreed the recovery cost would be several hundred thousand dollars. Neugent said he’s consulting with county legal staff on any potential liability as it applies to Freer or the marina.
Bermont summed up the Coast Guard position: “A vessel on the water, whether it’s floating or submerged, is the responsibility of the owner.”
Freer said he’s a “victim of this rotten, evil money system. I’m ready to give up on this evil empire and go down to Cuba where they still appreciate old machinery.

Gary Salyer Who ever towed the Tilly out there and left needs to be held accountable, the last to touch the boat should pay to remove. Lots of stupidity involved with this one.

Jim Brooks The taxpayer is going to end up footing the bill in the end. Had the tug made it to the mooring field, it would’ve sunk there. I don’t know maritime law but it seems to me the boat yard could’ve seized the craft for failure to pay fees (had the owner sign over ownership) and then dispose of it through other means.

Robert Cintron Russia

Sloan Bashinsky Did any of you see Key West the Newspaper’s article this week on this navigation folly? – www.thebluepaper.com.The readers’ comments and the blue paper’s Arnaud Girard’s back and forth sheds more light in this deep six adventure. I bumped into Arnaud today, and he said he emailed the County Commissioners about the tugboat, said, unless something was done, it was going to sink and cost the county lots of money. Arnaud said County Commissioner George Neugent wrote back ridiculing Arnaud. I asked Arnaud if there is a follow up sunk tug boat article coming out in this Friday’s edition of the blue paper? Yes, he said. I said I hoped he included Commissioner Neugent’s email in it. Arnaud is a salver, I imagine he would liked to have been hired by the County to deal with the tug boat. He told me today that he had called the Coast Guard and they had said they didn’t want him to bring the tug boat to their sea wall. Arnaud said he did free work trying to help the boat owner and his boat. And, if the boat had sunk out in the channel, no cruise ships would have been able to call on Key West until that was resolved. I said that was the unhappiest part of the story, that the tug boat did not sink out in the channel. Should George Nugent pay to remove the tug boat from where it is and tow it back to some place it can be disposed of?

WATER WORLDDerelict Tugboat Set To Cost Hundreds of Thousands to Monroe County
BY ARNAUD GIRARD
“My phone’s about to die! I am drifting southwest of Key West! I need to get off this boat before it’s too late!”
Using the last few minutes of airtime left on his cell phone Stephen Freer would explain how the dock master at a Stock Island marina had towed him and his 150-ton dilapidated tugboat out to sea and how he had left him there, miles from shore, with no radio, no pumps, no steering or propulsion, and no food or water.
Stephen, 66, is retired and lives on $ 800/month social security and until that afternoon had never been on a boat at sea before. He’d used all of his savings to buy into this great Craig’s List “bargain”: a 1943 tugboat called “Tilly”. […full article] [includes video shot by Arnaud of the tugboat, its “captain” and conversation between Arnaud and the “captain”]

Arnaud and I also talked some about the cat burglar,

who’s been stirring the pot in Key West for a while, in neighborhoods around the city cemetery, near Arnaud’s home.

I said a couple of weeks ago, Tom Milone

and I got to talking about the cat burglar, and Tom said it was odd the local cops couldn’t catch him, or her, when two cops lived in that neighborhood. I said, maybe it’s an inside job. Maybe the burglar is a cop, or is in league with a cop. Arnaud looked askance at me. I said, this is Key West. Anything’s possible. We agreed, the cat burglar (or burglars) is having a good run in the local press and has become a celebrity.

A fellow who walked out of his apartment and joined us on the sidewalk, said he and his wife had been burgled twice recently; one time he was awake when the burglar came crawling into their bedroom. He feared the burglar might be packing a pistol, so he pretended to be asleep. He said what might do the trick is people set trip wires, monofilament strung across doorways, strung through tin cans. Cat burglars don’t like making noise, might scare them off. As will a Mossberg pump shotgun, he said. I laughed, said, yeah, pump that gun, just about everyone knows that that sliding action sound is.

To be honest, I was a little shocked that you published anything about me online and/or without my permission.

I do not really like being referenced as you have.

I’d appreciate it is you could remove my name and anything I wrote.
Regards,

Tom

—
I’m always
in the
Twillight
In this
shadow
of your
heart

I replied:

No comprende, Tom.

You’ve seen some of my posts. You’ve seen I publish emails from other people and my replies, and I toss in my own thoughts. Will not comply with your request. Will get you off my email contacts, so you will not receive any further email blasts from me. You don’t have to write to me. That’s up to you.

Sloan

He wrote:

so in other words you have no respect for people’s right to privacy, you just lost my vote

I wrote:

I didn’t expect to get your vote, Tom. And, I don’t want it in any event.

You have played games since I got you away from that predator cop one night right after you arrived homeless in Key West, and I found you a place to stay that night where the cop could not get you.

Just for one example, you had and sent mail to you at the home of my friends who gave you refuge that night, without telling them you were going to do it. You tried to make it look like you were living with them, to establish yourself as having a residence in Key West. You tried to get them involved unknowingly in your scheme, which very well might have been illegal. You did not respect their privacy.

They sniffed you out the night you stayed with them. They wanted nothing more to do with you, not knowing that you were going to try to make it look like you were living with them, which they learned when they received the letters to you at their home, and I had to go see them and tell them what was going on. They were not happy.

You are one to talk about your privacy being respected. Homeless people have it hard enough down here, much of which they bring on themselves, without someone like you showing up and giving them an even worse reputation.

It is well known down here that I publish what other people send to me. You knew that after reading some of my posts at www.goodmorningkeywest.com. You knew I published stuff relevant to local issues and even national issues. You knew I call them as I see them, regardless of how people who write to me might feel about that.

I have not blown your cover by publishing your full name or email address. If you want privacy, don’t send me provocative material and ask for my comment. Don’t toy with me. Or I just might blow your cover because I view you as a menace to other people.

My longstanding offer to put you on a Greyhound bus with a one-way, non-refundable ticket and some traveling money to any destination on the mainland U.S. still stands. Spring is coming. Soon you won’t be at risk to freezing to death on the mainland.

Sloan

Just after pressing SEND, I wondered if Tom might be the cat burglar? Probably not. I think he arrived after the cat burglar was stirring the pot down here. He’s sneaky, though, like a cat burglar. I’m still inclined to half-way think he’s ex-CIA.

A thing about running for public office, for me anyway, if someone who claims to support me does something I cannot abide, I call that person out publicly because I do not want anyone to think I am okay with what that person did. If that person takes offense, so be it. If that person campaigns for another candidate, so be it. The irony here is, there is only one candidate for mayor, has always only been one candidate, who stands against the city when it abuses homeless people. I’m that candidate.

Sancho Panza winged my way under the subject, “the disease of men”:A man does not die of love or his liver or even of old age; he dies of being a man. Miguel de Unamuno

A true lover of wisdom has hands too busy to hold on to anything! He learns by doing and every pebble in the path becomes her teacher! Oink

I replied:

And, a woman dies of?

Sancho jibed:

The “death” Unamuno was talking about is the spiritual death that typically accompanies the denial of the feminine(receptive) aspect of our being… I am surprised you needed an explanation! As far as most Women these days, they are mostly too busy trying to be men, so ditto for them! Unamuno lived centuries ago… if he came back today, he might take a look around and declare this place to be a traveling circus…. LOL!

With this guy as the MC at the Center Ring….

I confessed:

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

I opened the link you provided and just saw U’s sayings; it was a bad, terrible, no good, rotten morning, I wuz not near the top of my game. Yes, in the main, women are dying of the same disease. It’s all a diabolical plot, one Exhibit thereof is the let’s blame Eve for everything story; poor Adam, he didn’t have eyes that saw, ears that heard, a mind and will of his own; nor had he been told by God not to eat that particular fruit, and now they both are learning all about good and evil, such a mountain and ocean of fun! Sometimes I’m having fun in in the mayor’s race down here. See attached photo.

Ciaosky

Sancho jibed again:

One of my all time favorite! Hated Nurse Gretchet… or whatever her name was! Jack [Nicholson] was, of course, playing himself or with himself… just like you! He, he, he!

Here’s a painting of your Lady Dulcinea to keep your “spirit” UP as you do battle, your excellency……

Sancho’s wet dream

I replied:

Not my lady, too young, too vampish, too full of herself, and under the veneer maybe a bit lacking in the feminine.

I once met Nurse Ratched’s

twin sister. Lovely wench.

As I recall, the actress who played Nurse Ratched won an academy award for best supporting actress. I think maybe Nicholson won best actor award, playing his own self.

From Wikipedia:

“Dulcinea del Toboso” (real name Aldonza Lorenzo) is a fictional character who is referred to (but does not appear) in Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote. Seeking the traditions of the knights-errant of old, Don Quixote finds a true love whom he calls Dulcinea. She is a simple peasant in his home town, but Quixote imagines her to be the most beautiful of all women. At times, Quixote goes into detail about her appearance, though he freely admits that he has seen her only fleetingly and has never spoken with her.

Don Quixote describes her appearance in the following terms: “… her name is Dulcinea, her country El Toboso, a village of La Mancha, her rank must be at least that of a princess, since she is my queen and lady, and her beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare.” [Volume 1/Chapter XIII]

However, Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s squire, knows Dulcinea well. Her real name is Aldonza Lorenzo, and Sancho describes her as follows: “… I can tell you that she pitches a bar as well as the strongest lad in the whole village… She’s a brawny girl, well built and tall and sturdy, and she will know how to keep her chin out of the mud with any knight errant who ever has her for his mistress. O the wench, what muscles she’s got, and what a pair of lungs! I remember the day she went up the village belfry to call in some of their lads who were working in a fallow field of her father’s, and they could hear her plainly as if they had been at the foot of the tower, although they were nearly two miles away. There’s a good deal of the court-lady about her too, for she has a crack with everybody, and makes a joke and a mock of them all.” [Volume 1/Chapter XXV]

one of my dulcineas

Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Political advertisement paid for and approved by Sloan Bashinsky, for Mayor of Key Way Far West of Weird

About Sloan

Darn, that would take a while. Try the autobiographical pages in the header. Ditto for header menu pages at www.goodmorningbirmingham.com. Hatched and raised there, eventually I ran away from home.
Here's a short list: Born 1942; male; single; accused of all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable things, perhaps some true. Live on Key West of Weird asteroid. Publish something most days on this website, been at that since July 2007. That's heaps of catch-up reading, probably not recommended.